Premier League
December 15, 2009
Bolton
3 - 1
West Ham
Premier League
20:00 GMT, December 15, 2009
Reebok Stadium, England
Referee: A Marriner
Green howler gifts Bolton win
Scoring Summary
| Bolton Wanderers | West Ham United |
|---|---|
| Lee Chung-Yong (64') | Alessandro Diamanti (69') |
| Ivan Klasnic (77') | |
| Gary Cahill (88') |
Teams
| Bolton Wanderers | West Ham United |
|---|---|
| 22 Jussi Jaaskelainen | 1 Robert Green |
| 12 Zat Knight | 4 Daniel Gabbidon |
| 5 Gary Cahill | 30 James Tomkins |
| 4 Paul Robinson | 23 Herita Nkongolo Ilunga |
| 15 Gretar Rafn Steinsson | 20 Julien Faubert |
| 21 Tamir Cohen | 8 Scott Parker |
| 6 Fabrice Muamba | 14 Radoslav Kovac |
| 7 Matthew Taylor | 7 Kieron Courtney Dyer |
| 27 Lee Chung-Yong | 31 Jack Collison |
| 17 Ivan Klasnic | 10 Guillermo Franco |
| 14 Kevin Davies | 32 Alessandro Diamanti |
| Substitutes | |
| 18 Samuel Ricketts | Jonathan Spector 18 |
| 11 Ricardo Gardner | Manuel Da Costa 22 |
| 3 Jlloyd Samuel | Fabio Daprela 33 |
| 31 Andrew O'Brien | Junior Stanislas 46 |
| 9 Johan Elmander | Josh Payne 35 |
| 26 Ali Al Habsi | Peter Kurucz 28 |
| 30 Chris Basham | Frank Nouble 24 |
| Substitutions | |
| Ricardo Gardner for Matthew Taylor (76) | Junior Stanislas for Kieron Courtney Dyer (21) |
| Chris Basham for Ivan Klasnic (83) | Manuel Da Costa for Jack Collison (87) |
| Yellow Cards | |
| Kevin Davies (17) | Guillermo Franco (45) |
| Ivan Klasnic (18) | |
| Fabrice Muamba (45) | |
| Tamir Cohen (57) | |
| · Squads: Bolton Wanderers | West Ham United | |
England goalkeeper Robert Green's howler gifted Bolton victory as the hosts climbed out of the relegation zone at the expense of fellow strugglers West Ham.
• Clarke: Green needs to bounce back
The impressive Chung-Yong Lee pulled the ball back to the edge of the box for Gary Cahill whose bouncing effort seemed harmless enough.
Green looked set for an easy catch, but inexplicably the England goalkeeper let the ball slip and Ivan Klasnic was on hand to tuck away his fourth goal in four games, giving Bolton a 2-1 lead.
Bolton had gone ahead through Lee, only for West Ham to hit back through Alessandro Diamanti.
But Klasnic's gift from Green and a third by Cahill sealed three points for Wanderers, who moved above the visitors into 17th place.
The Hammers are now second from bottom and also suffered a blow when injury-plagued midfielder Kieron Dyer had to be substituted midway through the first period.
Gary Megson named an unchanged Bolton line-up, rewarding his players for their impressive showing against Manchester City, while Gianfranco Zola brought Dyer into the Hammers side for his first start in three months.
Bolton started the game in purposeful fashion, Kevin Davies seizing on an error by Jack Collison in the first minute and rifling in an effort that was deflected just wide.
Dyer was fed neatly by Herita Ilunga after playing a one-two, but the former England international could only shoot tamely at Jussi Jaaskelainen from the edge of the box.
A minute later Scott Parker brought down Tamir Cohen but Matt Taylor's free-kick was collected by Green after bouncing off Danny Gabbidon.
The hosts were in the ascendancy, but picked up two needless bookings in the 22nd minute when Davies bundled into Green after the goalkeeper had caught the ball.
Referee Andre Marriner showed the Wanderers captain the yellow card and a minute later took Klasnic's name after the Croatian made his feelings about the decision known.
Bolton continued to press and Cahill was unlucky to misdirect a header wide from Paul Robinson's cross before the unfortunate Dyer was forced to come off, with Junior Stanislas the man sent on to replace him.
West Ham were looking deflated but Bolton's confidence was growing, with Fabrice Muamba and Taylor both trying their luck on the half-hour mark.
Zat Knight then failed to guide his header on target from Lee's corner while Cohen could only hook a shot over the bar from the Korean's lay-off.
Lee was looking lively on the left and minutes later had cut inside his man and found Klasnic in space.
The in-form striker tried to pick his spot from just outside the area but his drive was rising too fast and West Ham survived again.
Half-time did not seem to interrupt Bolton's rhythm one bit and they were back on the attack again almost immediately after the restart.
Lee badly miscued a volley after the ball had dropped to him in the area in the 50th minute and Cohen did better shortly afterwards having connected with Knight's header, but the Israeli saw his shot deflected for a corner.
It had been almost entirely one-way traffic, but West Ham finally lent some creativity to the game on the hour.
Diamanti lofted the ball to Guillermo Franco, who almost worked his way into a one-on-one with Jaaskelainen before Knight made an excellent intervention.
Cahill then broke free at other end to send in a low shot that Green could only parry, but the Hammers hit back again on the counter-attack, Parker creating an angle and hitting a fierce effort that Jaaskelainen tipped over.
Bolton's earlier supremacy was finally rewarded in the 64th minute when Klasnic split the West Ham defence perfectly with a through-ball that left an easy finish for Lee.
But the lead lasted just five minutes as Franco found Collison in the Bolton box, who teed up Diamanti to lash the ball past Jaaskelainen.
It looked as if the hosts might be left to rue their earlier profligacy in front of goal, but it was an error from Green that let them off the hook with 13 minutes to go.
The impressive Lee was involved again, pulling the ball back to the edge of the box for Cahill, whose bouncing effort seemed harmless enough.
Green looked set for an easy catch, but the England goalkeeper blundered and Klasnic snaffled up the chance.
Klasnic was then substituted and replaced by Chris Basham, who forced a diving save from Green with a long-range effort with two minutes remaining.
Fellow substitute Ricardo Gardner took the resulting corner and found Cahill rising tallest at the far post to head home and wrap up the points.
West Ham assistant manager Steve Clarke believes Robert Green needs to play "the game of his life" this weekend against Chelsea after his blunder against Bolton.
"We just got back in the game, it looked as if we were in control and Rob has unfortunately made a mistake and it is something that we couldn't come back from," Clarke said. "Football is all about mistakes. He has made a mistake but he is a man and he'll deal with it."He'll recover and the best thing he can do is go out on Sunday and have the game of his life. That is what he has to do - he has to respond."Clarke insisted the players are under no illusions about their current plight but is confident they will soon turn the corner."The feeling in the dressing room is that we know we are in a bad position," he said. "We know we haven't got enough points. The quicker we can get a win the better - but we don't just need one win, we need three, four, five wins."We are not stupid. We understand the situation and we are working as hard as we can to rectify it. At the moment it's not easy but we have confidence in the players, in ourselves and we are sure we can get out of the bottom three."Gary Megson admitted there was tension at half-time after the team had failed to convert a host of chances but the manager believes Wanderers can now start looking up rather than down having built on their impressive 3-3 draw with Manchester City on Saturday."We thought tonight that if we won this we would be out of the bottom three given the nature of Wolves' game," Megson said. "We have a hugely significant and difficult game at Wigan on Monday night but we've taken four points out of the last six and we have got to try and keep that momentum that we have gained."I think there was a bit of anxiety today - not just from the players, but from the supporters, from myself, the staff, everybody because the game was not exactly a procession, but not far off it in the first half. I can't remember West Ham having an effort at goal or a cross or anything that was remotely dangerous, and yet you look at the quality and you think that they are not going to need too many opportunities."To be perfectly frank, I felt we played better on Saturday against City than we did today but we have scored three goals at home in the last two games."